


Braids and Dreams and Other Such Things

by ThisWasntTaken



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Fluff, I Tried, I don't know how to fluff, M/M, i think
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-03
Updated: 2013-11-03
Packaged: 2017-12-31 07:56:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1029203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThisWasntTaken/pseuds/ThisWasntTaken
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam liked having his hair played with. He also liked Gabe. Why not have both?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Braids and Dreams and Other Such Things

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for an anonymous donor for my Alayna Goes to Oxford fund. If you donate $1.50 USD, I'll write you a fanfic for a pairing & prompt of your choice! The link is: http://www.gofundme.com/alaynagoestooxford
> 
> This donor just asked for Sabriel fluff, and I hope that Whedon, Moffat, and Kripke haven't made it so that I can't write it. I really tried to keep the angst out.

Sam liked having his hair played with. He didn’t know until Jessica. One day, when he was sitting in front of the couch stressing over finals, Jess sat on the couch behind him and started playing with his hair. He finally got to sleep, and he aced all three finals that he took the next day. It sort of became a thing for them; if Sam was stressed, Jess would just sit quietly behind him and play with his hair, allowing him to sort it out himself but letting him know that she was there if he needed her (and, damn, did he need her).

Then after Jess died, Sam lost that too. The closest he came was Ruby, who liked to pull his hair during sex, but it wasn’t the same. And then one day, not too long after he locked Sam and Dean in the TV Land, Gabriel just popped up out of nowhere.

“What are you doing here?” Sam asked, grabbing a knife and looking around to be sure Dean wouldn’t find them.  
“Fighting destiny,” Gabriel shrugged. “It’ll probably get us all killed, but at least I can say I died for something.”  
“What made you suddenly switch sides?” Sam asked, untrusting.  
“There’s no ‘switching,’ kiddo. I’ve always been on the side of humanity. Now I’m just doing something about it.”

And so Team Free Will added “Runaway Archangel” to its ranks (Dean didn’t find out about this until months later).

***

Sam pulled at his hair. “I can’t find anything!”  
Gabriel removed Sam’s hands from his hair and replaced them with his own. He started massaging Sam’s scalp and said, “Just calm down, Sasquatch. Freaking out won’t change that the answer is or isn’t here.”  
Sam relaxed his body and leaned into Gabriel’s touch.

Gabriel had to teleport Sam to two different libraries before he found what he was looking for.

***

It went on like this for months. Gabriel would leave whenever Dean came around (even if he wanted to be a jerk, he wanted to avoid conflict even more), but he would join Sam at the library and help him research (well, “help him research” was more like “eat chocolate and rant about history texts” and, occasionally, “play with Sam’s hair”). Eventually Gabriel started joining Sam other places, like to get dinner or just on walks, which Sam started taking way more often.

When Dean finally stopped being loudly upset by Gabriel’s presence, Gabe would hang out at the hotel and poof up pie for Dean, who grumbled but ate it. Whenever Dean would go out, leaving Gabriel and Sam alone, Gabriel would get behind Sam and play with his hair; Gabriel was a tactile person, always touching, and Sam liked having his hair played with, so it was mutually beneficial.

Then he started doing it when Dean was around.

“What the hell are you doing?” Dean asked.  
Sam sat straighter, Gabriel’s hand falling as Sam leaned out of reach, only now realizing that it might seem unusual to Dean.  
Gabriel shrugged. “It helps him relax. With what’s hanging over him, I figure it can’t hurt.”  
Dean looked over to Sam, but his younger brother wouldn’t meet his eye, a blush coloring his cheeks. “Whatever.” Dean got up and left, and the Impala roared to life soon after.

Sam turned to Gabriel. “Is this weird?”  
“In comparison to…? What, the rest of your life? Kiddo, getting your head groped by an archangel may be the most normal thing that’s ever happened to you,” Gabriel said.  
Sam sighed. “The worst part is that you’re right.”  
Gabriel laughed and buried his hands back in Sam’s hair.

***

Sam was a Winchester; he rarely asked for things. And even when he did ask, he didn’t often use words.

“I’m going out to get something to eat,” Dean said. “You want anything?”  
Sam shook his head. “I’m not hungry. Thanks.”  
“I’ll have a burger,” Gabriel said from the couch.  
Dean didn’t acknowledge him before he left.

When the door was closed and Sam heard the Impala pull away, he sat down on the couch next to Gabriel, who continued watching the show on TV but put his arm on the back of the couch around Sam. Sam lay down in Gabriel’s lap.

“You okay there, kiddo?” Gabriel asked with a laugh in his voice, hand going to Sam’s hair.  
Sam sighed. “There’s no way around this, is there? I’m _going_ to be Lucifer’s vessel.”  
“Is this why you’re not hungry?”  
“Lucifer’s haunting my dreams. I’m not much of anything beyond exhausted.”  
“I didn’t know,” Gabriel said. “I should’ve known. Of course he would! He can’t find you, but you were made for him; he can get into your head.”  
“Is there any way to stop it?”  
“With all the angel guarding mojo on your chest, I should be able to keep him out if I pop in,” Gabriel said. “But then I’d be in your head, in your dreams. Literally.”  
“Anything’s better than Lucifer.”  
Gabriel nodded. “Then sleep.”

Gabriel tried to keep as little of himself inside Sam as possible while still guarding against Lucifer. To keep him balanced, he began braiding Sam’s hair.

Dean came in with the food and started talking, pulling Gabriel’s attention away.  
“I got you some rabbit food anyway,” Dean said. “Come eat.” Then he paused. “Is he _in_ _your_ _lap_? What the _hell_ is going on between you two? No. No. I don’t wanna know.”  
“I wish it were something you didn’t want to know about,” Gabriel said and, when Sam tensed up in his lap, he realized that he wasn’t guarding Sam’s head anymore. “Sam. Sammy, come on. Rise and shine, Gigantor.” Sam woke with a gasp. “It’s okay, kiddo. Dean distracted me. I’m sorry.”  
Sam sat up and let out a breath as he looked around.  
“Dude,” Dean laughed.  
“Shut up,” Sam said.  
“No, I’ll mock the _hell_ out of you for that later, but right now, he braided your hair,” Dean howled, grabbing the chair beside him for support.  
“Gabe!” Sam shouted.  
“Sorry, sorry,” Gabe snapped Sam’s hair back to normal. “It was that or go all in, looking through your memories and stuff.”  
Sam pinched Gabriel’s leg and gave him a look that Gabriel took to mean _Don’t_ _talk_ _about_ _this_ _around_ _Dean_. Those Winchesters really were stunted.

***

Gabe kept an eye on Sam, helping him out when he slept, but he didn’t come back for a while after that. One night, when Sam saw him in his dream because Gabriel gave a little too much, Sam ran after him and grabbed his hand.  
“Why aren’t you ever around anymore?”  
“I have other things to do,” Gabriel shrugged.  
“Like?”  
“Important stuff.”  
“More important than the end of the world?” Sam asked.  
“I think your real question is ‘more important than me?’” Gabriel said, teasing. But Sam looked down, breaking eye contact and studying the floor.  
“Sorry,” Sam said. “I guess since I can see you, you must have gotten into the ‘memories and stuff.’”  
Gabriel was billions of years old, but still few things had caught him off-guard the way that did. “I want you to give me your thoughts and worries; I don’t want to reach in and take them. I haven’t put so much forward that I’ve leaked into you; I didn’t know.”  
“Oh,” Sam said, and, for a while, that was it.  
“Do you want to just forget about it?” Gabriel asked.  
“Do you?”  
“Sam, I like you. A lot,” Gabriel sighed. “A lot. But I’m…if you think I’m a lot to handle now, just date me.”  
“Is that a challenge?” Sam grinned.  
“I’ll never leave you alone, Sam. If you let me have any part of you I’m gonna want it all. This won’t be it; I’ll want permission to go in and wade through your shitty life.”  
“It’s not exactly a beach read, but you’re welcome to it. And to me, if you’ll have me.”  
“Oh, Sammy. I’ll have you every way you could possibly imagine and some ways you can’t.”  
“Don’t call me Sammy.”  
“Okay, pumpkin,” Gabriel said, making a kissy face at Sam.  
“Not that, either.”  
“Oh, come on, sugar plum.”  
“Gabe, stop it.”  
“Definitely not, sweetheart.”  
“Well then, honey, you’re on.”  
“Oh, Sasquatch, I have billions of years and thousands of languages on you. I’ll win this battle.”  
“I kind of like ‘Sasquatch,’” Sam shrugged.  
“Really?”  
“Yeah. It’s better than ‘Gigantor.’”  
Gabriel smirked. “I guess it’s best to stick with the basics.”  
Sam barked out a laugh. “Since _when_ have you ‘stuck with the basics?’”  
“Hey! I do!”  
“When?”  
Gabriel kissed Sam. “Shut up.”  
“You’re not the boss of me.”  
“But I guarantee I can give you something better to do with your mouth,” Gabriel said, eyebrow raised.  
Sam kissed him.

In the waking world, Gabriel went to see Sam in person after their new development. Sam came outside and leaned against the wall of the motel next to Gabriel.  
Gabriel kissed him. “I like a size difference, you know.”  
“Yeah?” Sam laughed.  
“Yeah. I think it’s cute that you’re so small compared to me. I’m about ten times the size of the Chrysler Building,” Gabriel said.  
“I’m gonna need a bigger mouth.”


End file.
